One
of his passages describing the office-seekers tumbling over
each other like pigs to a trough will be long remembered.
He hated Jefferson and moved his impeachment in the House
of Representatives,--a motion for which he got no vote but
his own. He retired disgusted from National public life,
became Mayor of Boston, an office which he filled with much
distinction, and then was called to the Presidency of Harvard,
mainly because of his business capacity. The finances of
the University were then in a sad condition. He put them
on an excellent footing. He was very fond of the boys and
they of him, although he was rough and hasty in his manners.
While I was in college (although I happened to be at home
that day and did not see the affair) some of the boys had
got into some serious rows in Boston one Saturday. They had
undertaken to wear the Oxford cap and gown. They were ridiculed
by the populace in Boston, and a good many fights were the
consequence. They were driven from the streets, and in the
afternoon a lot of roughs took hold of a long rope, as if
they belonged to an engine company, ran out to Cambridge across
the bridge, and proposed to attack the college buildings.
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